I’ve been negligent in linking to this, but be sure to check out Alan Jacobson’s excellent new(ish) Best Front Design feature. He looks at a selection of the day’s pages and analyzes why he thinks they work (or not!). And now that he’s got commenting enabled, it’s even excellent-er.

(This link has nothing to do with the fact that he picked my newspaper’s front page today. Really. I had nothing to do with the page anyway. Really!)

Update: Jacobson and Quark are going to award $1,000 in cash and more than $1,000 in Quark software to the designer of the best front page every month. January's winner is Robert Suhay of Norfolk's Virginian-Pilot.

>Best Front Design (Brass Tacks Design)

Los Angeles Times Editor James O’Shea on Wednesday announced major changes on the horizon for the paper, including a redesign. If you seem to remember that the Times just redesigned part of the paper recently, you’d be right. But this, O’Shea says, will be a “real redesign.”

I am going to establish a second working group from the newsroom to help me with another major challenge we face, redesigning the print newspaper to make it an effective backbone for latimes.com.

Sometime this fall, the Los Angeles Times, like every other major paper including the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and others, will adapt a 48-inch press web that will create a newspaper that will be slightly narrower than the one we currently publish.

There is no stopping this conversion. The entire industry is moving that way. Even if we were not going to make any newsroom changes, the new press web width would probably require a redesign.

This time, though, we are going to do a real redesign, one that questions and challenges every section of the newspaper, a redesign that relates individual sections to the newspaper as a whole.

This effort will come from within the newsroom. We will lead it, but we will also include in our working group some thoughtful colleagues from outside the newsroom, people who have expertise and experience in areas unfamiliar to journalists.

Ideally I would like to take a year to rethink everything we do. But we don't have the luxury of that much time. Innovation is something we have to do in the newspaper every day. It is an ongoing process.

So we probably will do a phased redesign that will play out over the next year. The redesign working group will work this out.

>Editor James O’Shea unveils Web initiative at Times [L.A. Times]
>James O’Shea’s address to Times staff [L.A. Times]

Here are some before-and-afters from the Rocky Mountain News. New pages on the right. In the larger images I’ve adjusted the new pages to reflect the smaller size. Update: Also, the Rocky’s opened up access to its electronic edition until midnight Friday, so take a look for yourself.

Update2: Roger Black weighs in in the comments on the previous post.

There are actually many spreads in the paper, particularly at the front of each section , which you don't show, and neither does the web site's ActivePaper PDF reader. But if you see the printed edition, the size, the layout-as-spreads, the increased color, the no-jump booking, the more informal headlines style, it begins to look like a magazine.

<snip>

John Temple has been talking about the redesign on his blog for months, and there have been many opportunities for readers to tell the paper what they want, and they have. The little poll on the logo development is part of a continuing process to bring readers in on the defintion of the Rocky brand. The question here is, "Is it The Rocky or is it Rocky Mountain News?" The staff is extremely interested to see how people react to that, because they went pretty far down the road (as you can see) to actually changing the name of the paper. And the defnition of a brand is never finished, nor is a paper's design. These are processes, not events.

Here are some spreads from today’s paper:

Roger Black worked on the project, and has a few thoughts and pages on his blog. The Rocky also has a blog post about the redesign, with comments enabled. Editor John Temple has already chimed in in the comments.

The Rocky Mountain News in Denver and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel both launched redesigns today. Both papers have also reduced their size. The indefatigable Charles Apple has more details at VisualEditors (Rocky, Milwaukee).

They look nice, but nothing too radical here, from what I can see (my rant on that here). Some new fonts and some general cleaning up. Rocky editor John Temple writes the paper’s “conceived more like a magazine,” but just says that in relation to where columns are placed. Is that a larger philosphical shift as well? The front does look more magazine-like (Alan Jacobson says the photo’s “ambiguous and passive”), but is that just because they’re kicking off a big honkin’ 33-part series?

And this bugs me. There’s an audio slideshow by Temple on the evolution of the flag through the redesign process. (Those flags, by the way, have the distinct and lovely smell of Jim Parkinson, but that’s speculation Parkinson wasn't involved, Roger Black says.) You can also vote for which one you would pick. But why do that now, when it doesn’t matter? To me, that almost seems more contemptuous of reader opinion than not asking at all. If you really cared what readers thought about that, you’d do it before you actually made the decision.

A buncha changes involving the visual staff at the San Jose Mercury News today. Deputy Managing Editor Matt Mansfield breaks down the highlights:

1) Kevin Wendt becomes an Assistant Managing Editor, overseeing all sorts of stuff.

2) Jonathon Berlin will spend 2007 locked away in an undisclosed location working on the first major redesign of the Merc since 2000. He'll have help from all of us, but JB is the overall project manager/creative force.

3) Michael Tribble takes the helm as Design Director.

4) Jeff Hindenach and Kathy Sweeney become Deputy Design Directors.

Huzzah! Full memo from executive editor Susan Goldberg and managing editor Dave Satterfield after the jump.

Folks:

We are delighted to announce that Kevin Wendt will become an assistant managing editor at the Mercury News supervising Sports, the Copy Desk and the online operation at night. He also will continue to oversee the front page two nights a week -- on Monday and Tuesday.

Kevin has held a variety of roles since joining the Mercury News in 2000, including assistant business editor and news design director. He's excelled in every job he's had, including a temporary assignment that may have been his toughest: Kevin was part of the team that journeyed to Biloxi following Hurricane Katrina, helping in every aspect of the Sun-Herald's effort to publish after the storm; that coverage won a Pulitzer Prize.

Kevin, a graduate of Northern Illinois University, is known for his boundless energy, his forward-looking thinking, his can-do attitude and a high level of skills across platforms. He works incredibly hard. He does great imitations (ask him). We'd go on about Kevin, but you already know him and his considerable abilities. Kevin will have two bosses: he'll report to Dave on Sports and Copy Desk matters, and to Katharine for online. Please join us in congratulating him on his new role.

In addition:

Herschel Kenner will become Executive News Editor, continuing his excellent job of being our "adult in charge at night," putting out the paper Wednesday through Saturday and overseeing page one. He'll report to Dave.

Mike Mayer, designer and wire editor extraordinaire, will supervise page one on Sunday nights. Mike's a seasoned news editor and knows the Mercury News inside and out.

Rebecca Salner will take on added responsibilities in overseeing our Sunday and longer-term planning, in addition to her role as Assistant Managing Editor for Projects. As we've shared with department heads, Rebecca will be the main coordinator for all of our significant enterprise work. We'd also like to thank Rebecca for stepping in to oversee the sports department for the past year; she did a terrific job.

Jonathon Berlin will be detached for three special projects, the newspaper's impending move to the 48-inch web width and an associated overall redesign of our print product, as well as the switch to a new computer system for everyone in the newsroom (expected completion date: Fall 2007). Jonathon will continue to report to Matt Mansfield, but he'll be working with every newsroom department on these projects. Please give him your help.

Michael Tribble becomes the paper's design director, in Jonathon's absence. Michael has spent the last two years at the Merc, after coming to us from the Charlotte Observer. Michael will take the lead on features, biz and projects design. He will also take over as our primary contact with the pre-press and production departments. Michael will oversee all design that happens during daylight hours and is the go-to guy for all design issues (no matter when they happen). Michael reports to Matt.

Jeff Hindenach becomes deputy design director/nights. Jeff has spent the last six years as a force in news and business design. He's been a champion for attracting new readers by helping launch our ReadThis! efforts aimed at teens and as a board member of the Northern California chapter of the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association that works hard for inclusion at every level. Jeff's knows the Merc and knows what makes great news design. Jeff will oversee all design at night. Jeff reports to Michael.

Kathy Sweeney becomes deputy design director/days and will continue the stellar job she has done organizing our features design. Kathy (and Sylvia Ulloa) helped the features design crew with the transition to CCI and have worked tirelessly to improve our processes in that area. Kathy reports to Michael.

Please congratulate everyone on the new roles. And thanks for all you do to make the Mercury News better every day.

Susan and Dave

Looks like I’ll have to give up my dream of being the first newspaper designer to make People Magazine. Mario Garcia has been named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics by People en Español. He’s right there on Page 64, next to Shakira and her not-lying hips.

It reads, roughly:

Such is his reputation when creating new forms to display the news, that this talented 59-year-old Cuban is a legend in his industry. Editors throughout the world, from Bogota to Dubai, entrust their newspapers to him. One of his most well-known projects but is the redesign of the renowned Wall Street Journal.

The public radio show Studio 360 devoted part of this week’s episode to the new Wall Street Journal. Design writer and former I.D. Magazine editor Chee Pearlman weighs in with about 5 minutes of commentary.

It just feels like a little Mini-Me of the Wall Street Journal. Wall Street Journal Jr. It’s cute, it’s little, it’s a little bit more friendly. You’d be lying to say that you’re doing it for the convenience of the reader. It’s lost an inch and a half on each side in order for them to save somewhere in the neighborhood of $18 million a year. That’s not for the reader. Trust me on that one.

In the new spirit of “unboxing,” John Moore of Brand Autopsy unboxes the new Wall Street Journal:

Now, if you’re like me, when you think of The Wall Street Journal, you inevitably think of Tupac (don’t tell me you don’t). And you wonder “why has no one given us a Tupac-fueled love-letter to the Journal? Wonder no more, yo:

(Thanks, Tom!)

Welcome to the world, buddy. It’s a cruel, crazy, beautiful place, and I have no doubt you’re gonna kick its ass. All 4.8 pounds of you. Excellent work beating that deadline by a good month (you didn’t get that skill from your old man). Now turn down that awful racket you call “music!” (Just practicing!)

The new narrower, Mario Garcia-redesigned Wall Street Journal is out today. Free on the newsstands and online today, apparently. Romenesko’s got links. Here are some of today’s section fronts and a page about the new design from the reader’s guide. Here’s a PDF of that page.

Garcia says he was already getting positive reader e-mails before dawn. But for his part, web designer Greg Storey says “who in their infinite ivy-league 5th Avenue wisdom spilt McClatchy all over this morning’s Wall Street Journal?”

Update: Here's the full PDF of the Reader's Guide.